"Despicable Me 2,"
the animated sequel to the 2010 hit about a far-from-despicable supervillain
named Gru (and voiced by Steve Carell), opens on Wednesday this week, as it
hopes to get an early jump on the extended July 4 weekend. Here are five cool
things to know about directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud's film before
heading to theaters:

5. Paying homage.
If Gru's sense of style seems familiar, it's for a reason. The look of
"Despicable Me 2" --- like that of the first "Despicable Me" film -- was
inspired by the so-called "suburban Gothic" feel of the works of "Addams
Family" creator Charles Addams as well as artist and "Gashleycrumb Tinies"
creator Edward Gorey. When it came to comedy style -- specifically with regard
to the movement of the film's characters -- animators borrowed from the likes
of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Jacques Tati, Rowan Atkinson and
Peter Sellers.

4. I tawt I taw ... a Tweety
Bird? Among the more popular characters in the "Despicable Me" films are
the crowd-pleasing, scene-stealing Minions, the army of diminutive, yellow
henchmen who cheerfully help Gru with his dastardly plans. In "Despicable Me
2," however, audiences will get to see them in a new light when some of them
take on a much more menacing form. For the design of these new "evil" Minions,
the filmmakers looked to the 1960 Merrie Melodies cartoon "Hyde and Go Tweet,"
in which Tweety Bird is transformed after drinking a Jekyll-and-Hyde formula.
"The idea of something cute becoming something monstrous is an appealing
thought," co-director Chris Renaud explains in the film's production notes.

3. Adaptable me.
Many of the voice actors from the original cast return for the sequel -- although there
were a few changes to grapple with. For starters, Kristen Wiig --
who was the voice of Miss Hattie, who ran an orphanage in the first film --
this time voices Lucy, a secret agent assigned to assist Gru. Totally new to
the cast is Benjamin Bratt, who voices the villain El Macho in a bit of casting
that almost didn't happen: Al Pacino had been
brought in to voice that part but departed the film just two months before it
was to hit theaters, citing "creative differences." That left producers
scrambling for a replacement, eventually
settling on Bratt -- who had to record his lines in a way that would perfectly
match the mouth of the already animated character.

'Despicablimp' flies New Orleans' skiesUniversal Pictures' "Despicablimp" -- a 165-foot-long dirigible -- took off from Lakefront Airport to fly the friendly skies of New Orleans this weekend (April 12-13), part of a promotion for the forthcoming animated sequel "Despicable Me 2," due in theaters July 3, 2013.

2. Rolling up their
sleeves. "Despicable Me" helmers Coffin and Renaud return once more to
direct the sequel, but their involvement isn't just behind-the-scenes. They
also provide the Minions, whose nonsensical vocalizations aren't quite as
nonsensical as they might sound. "I have them speak Indian, French, English,
Spanish and Italian," said Coffin, who was enlisted to provide the Minions'
voices after a more-successful-than-expected audio test in which he innocently volunteered
to be a guinea pig. "I mix up all these ridiculous sounding words just because
they sound good, not because they necessarily mean something."

1. More to come.
The first "Despicable Me" grossed more than $540 million at the box office and
became the 10th-highest-grossing animated film in U.S. history, so a
sequel was inevitable. In fact, a sequel to the sequel is already in the works:
"The Minions" will feature the voices of Sandra Bullock and John Hamm as a pair
of supervillains. It is due in theaters in December 2014.